Inquiry into NZ fuel supply to get underway months after Auckland pipeline leak

There will be a full scale inquiry into the security of New Zealand's fuel supply months after a pipe cut the Marsden Refinery to Auckland pipeline.

Jet fuel shortages caused flight cancellations and petrol stations ran out of petrol when the pipeline was shut down for 10 days after the discovery of a leak in September.

The pipeline was briefly shut down again on Sunday after a monitoring alarm was falsely set off.

Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods says the inquiry will investigate the cause of the September outage and how fuel supplies can be secured in the future.

"While this work is undertaken we've also instructed officials to investigate short term ways to improve resilience, as well as to ensure all parties involved have effective response plans in place to enable them to respond quickly in the event of any potential future outages," she said.

Terms of reference will be determined early next year and independent inquirers will be appointed.

Source: 1 NEWS

The move raises fears about the pipe's long-term future after it was shut for two weeks by a leak in September.
Source: 1 NEWS